Does Marketing need marketing to startups and SMEs?

At #IoTUKInvestorDay on July 17 I heard 10 tech startup entrepreneurs with a business related to The Internet Of Things pitching to raise in most cases hundreds of thousands of pounds. Several wanted to make a transformational step by setting up Sales & Marketing teams and start B2C marketing. Sounded like some scaleup work opportunities for nimble marketing professionals.

Although it’s hard to be certain in a quick-fire series of five minute pitches, a repeated inference to the potential investors in the audience seemed – to me – to be “we’ve done the hard yards getting this far with our invention/discovery/vision/app/idea, and now all we need to scaleup is [your] money to pay for some marketing, then sales will inevitably follow, and we’ll all be sharing the rewards.”

The marketing function with its complexities and uncertainties was mentioned almost as an afterthought, even though it would be the untested new element in the mix to take some of these companies on a transformational step to the next stage of their development. One speaker had indeed used up his allotted time without getting to what a large chunk of the money he was raising was going to be used for – so he settled for an almost dismissive “marketing and all that jazz.” This shows little regard for the skills and expertise required to organise and execute effectively an organisation’s marketing and contribute to achieving its overall business goals. It thus also underestimates a good marketer’s value to an organisation.

Should the marketing profession, perhaps through its representative bodies like The Marketing Society and IDM (Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing) market the business discipline of Marketing to the entrepreneurial, startup, SME sectors?

If you are an entrepreneur with a business you want to either startup or scaleup and would like to understand more about benefits and opportunities provided by reward, equity or debt crowdfunding then please get in touch, [email protected]. I am an independent crowdfunding adviser, not affiliated to any particular platforms. I have over 30 years of varied marketing experience and have specialised in crowdfunding for the last three – making me almost an industry veteran!